Sam Ballard got drunk with friends, swallowed a slug, went into coma. He woke up completly paralyzed, and then died later.

In what will be considered a silly mistake that could cost a life, Sam was drinking with his friends when they all saw a slug crawling nearby. The boys challenged each other on who would eat it.

Sam accepted the challenge. He swallowed the slug. Easy peasy! This was 2010.

Few moments later, his body became weak, his legs trembled, and he felt like fainting. He later fell into a coma, where he stayed for 420 days. After he woke, he was paralyzed, and needed care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

He died in 2018.

What Sam didn't know was that the slug was infected with rat lung disease —a parasitic worm found in the lungs of rats.

When a human eats an animal infected with the parasite, because our body can't excrete the worm as rats do, the parasite stays in the body and the end result can be mild, or lethal like in the case of Sam.